Welcome to Ethically Essential: where ethical, organic, fairtrade foods are literally at your fingertips and can be ordered in just a few clicks.

What we have

Buying genuinely ethical food couldn't be easier! Our online shop features a wide range of ethical foods. We have plenty of store cupboard essentials including cereals, pulses, seeds and fairtrade chocolate spread. And we also have a great choice of more exotic and unusual fare including Fairtrade red quinoa, biodynamic Egyptian herbal teas, wild-gathered dried mushrooms and Fairtrade herbs and spices. They are brought to the UK by Essential Trading, a long-established worker co-operative based in Bristol that specialises in working alongside ethical producers and suppliers and adheres to its own principled ethos.

What we do

Ethically Essential champions foods that are ethical as we believe that while fairtrade and organic are very important to the wellbeing of people and the planet, the ‘next step' in responsible shopping is seeking foods that are ethical as well.

Ethical food can include fairly traded foods that are not yet certified, products produced by co-operatives and other socially responsible organisations, products produced using sustainable or biodynamic farming methods, and eco friendly products or those produced in environmentally friendly ways. None of our products are transported by air and all are certified GM Free.

Sometimes it's not so easy to find ethical foods during your weekly shop. Turning around all the packets and scanning the small print can become tiresome and with different companies/suppliers phrasing their ethical and sustainable status in many different ways, it can be confusing too.

What we know

The products here at Ethically Essential take away all the hard work: we've not just read the ‘small print' we wrote most of it. And we don't just hear these products are good and true to their claims: we have been out to the farms and forests, visited the co-operatives and communities to see for ourselves how true these people and their products are.

As a co-op we have seen and worked with a self-sufficient community built on coffee production and an organic biodynamic farm on reclaimed desert sand which contributes towards a comprehensive advancement of the individual, the community and the environment. Projects like this give us food for thought and we have integrated these human values into the way that we bring products to you.

What you can do

We are lucky to be able to see for ourselves the fantastic work being done in the ethical trading market. The next best thing to seeing it in person is to support the people who produce these high quality foods: Ethically Essential makes this possible. Please take a few minutes to click through to our pages where we provide insight into how the food is produced and explain how your purchases from this site will benefit communities across the world.

Thank you

Thank you for visiting our site. We wish you fun creating your basket of ethical food, secure in the knowledge that the people who have worked to produce these ingredients will be supported by your choice and can continue to thrive.

Firstly, thank you for your custom. However, I am writing to let you know that unfortunately we are suspending the Ethically Essential service. We intend to re-launch our online shop on a different platform as soon as possible but for now, we are choosing to focus on what we do best- wholesaling. So, our advice for the time being is to check your local independent health food shop for our products (you will not find us in supermarkets on principle). We also offer delivery to buying groups of several households- a great way to save money on your shopping and to minimise on unnecessary packaging: more info about minimum orders for buying groups on our website http://www.essential-trading.coop/ (click on ‘our services' and select buying groups from the drop down menu).

We will let you know by email when you can begin to use our new and improved service for buying online.

We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience. Thank you again for your custom and we hope you will continue to enjoy Essential products via other platforms.